New reports coming in that there was no "human" shield and that Bin Laden was unarmed also. He was just resisting capture when they decided to shoot him: --------

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was not armed when U.S. special forces stormed his compound in Pakistan but he did resist before he was shot, the White House said on Tuesday.

A day after U.S. officials provided conflicting and in some cases false information about the details of the raid, White House spokesman Jay Carney gave a more detailed account of the operation. He cited the "fog of war" -- a phrase suggested by a reporter -- as a reason for the initial misinformation.

"On orders of the president, a small U.S. team assaulted a secure compound in an affluent suburb of Islamabad to capture or kill Osama bin Laden," Carney told reporters, reading from a statement prepared by the Department of Defence.

The team found three families, including bin Laden's, at two different buildings in the compound.

Commandos cleared the building where one family lived, while another team entered the first floor of bin Laden's house, where another family lived.

On that floor U.S. forces killed two al Qaeda couriers along with a woman who was "killed in cross-fire," Carney said, backing away from an earlier assertion that the woman had been used as a human shield.

Dianne Feinstein, chairwoman of the Senate intelligence committee, said the woman may have been the wife of one of the couriers.

The commandos then found bin Laden and his family on the second and third floor of the house.

If you are going to apprehend someone who is known for planning suicide attacks, and who is meant to be 100% committed to the cause, would you not consider the fact that he may have something nearby to blow himself up along with his would be captors? In which case if he so much as blinks I'd be keen to put a bullet or 3 in him so I get to go home to be bought all the drinks I can ever drink.

Also remember that we are discussing this after the event and have all the time in the world. Those guys that walked into that room had no time to think. Only to react. The potential to die if you react too slow would have been pretty high quite often in those 40 odd mins!

Also, no matter how it was handled, someone or some group would always claim "fail!" or "scandal"